| Sylvia Plath,an American poet,novelist,and short-story writer,is often lauded as the guide-on bearer of the feminist movement.In 1982 The Collected Poems edited by Ted Hughes won the Pulitzer Prize 19 years after her death.She was the first poet to posthumously win a Pulitzer Prize.Initially published in 1963 under the pseudonym Victoria Lucas,The Bell Jar has as its protagonist and narrator Esther Greenwood,who experiences a series of events in the year of 1953 when she is a 19-year-old college student.In the summer she goes to New York as a guest editor for a famous magazine and comes back home to find being rejected by the summer writing course.At the same time,she is going through a breakdown,which culminates in a suicide attempt.She then receives psychotherapy and at the end of the novel is about to go out of the mental institution and back to the society.After the novel was republished,under Sylvia Plath’s name,in England in 1966 and in the United States in 1971,The Bell Jar earned a spot on The New York Times bestseller list for many weeks.Many researchers give a high acclamation to this novel,claiming it as the female version of The Catcher in the Rye.This thesis will analyze the reasons,symptoms and possible recovery of the narrator Esther’s spiritual suffering in light of trauma theory which is grounded in the theoretical concepts of Cathy Caruth,Sigmund Freud,and Judith Herman.After going through previous research on The Bell Jar,the author finds that it was the subject of several feminist critical readings analyzing the heroine’s futile revolt against the male-dominated society.Some later researchers study this novel from the perspective of psychoanalysis.As a semi-autobiographical novel,some commentators just see it as background information for the poetry and life of Sylvia.Among these studies,relatively few ones have focused on the trauma of the narrator in this novel.Chapter One first introduces the author of The Bell Jar and the novel itself,and then makes an overview about the research concerning The Bell Jar both abroad and at home.The structure of this paper together with the objective and significance of the study is also introduced in this part.In Chapter Two trauma theory is expounded.One can get to know what is trauma,what are the causes and effects and how to get recovery.Chapter Three gives a detailed analysis of the causes of the protagonist Esther’s trauma from three major aspects.Chapter Four lists the symptoms of Esther’s trauma and presents them in three categories based on Judith Herman’s classification of symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.Chapter Five examines the effort Esther makes in her recovery of trauma.This chapter follows Judith Herman’s theory of trauma recovery.Chapter Six is a conclusion of the whole paper.This part includes the major findings of the study.Her family background,personal experience as well as social and political climate in 1950s America has brought unspeakable pain to the young protagonist.Through this thesis,readers can have a further understanding of the absurd behaviors of a young,highly intelligent college student,and thus have a reflection and introspection on history,society and themselves. |
